Dates/Time

Location

Registration

Early Bird Discount Use the coupon code VZ22WH in the cart to receive a 10% discount on the total order. Early Bird Discount coupon code is valid until Friday, May 1, 2015.

You may register online. If you have any questions, please contact us.

Description

Intermediate and advanced dancers will immerse themselves in technical training with morning classes in ballet, pointe/pre-pointe, jazz and modern. Two levels of technique will be offered and placement evaluations will take place the first day of the intensive.

Afternoon classes in Pilates, character improvisation and composition are scheduled. Seminars in nutrition, dance history and injury prevention will also be offered during the intensive. Dancers will experience a total immersion in technique, gain physical strength, and develop an understanding of the culture of dance.

There will be an open showing of composition and class work for families and friends on Friday, July 24 from 1pm-2:30pm at Raisbeck Performance Hall.

What to bring

Lunch, ballet shoes, pointe shoes, and jazz shoes.

Requirements & Availability

Faculty

Brenna Cook

Originally from Oak Park, Illinois, Brenna Monroe-Cook began her dance training at the Academy of Movement and Music under the direction of Stephanie Clemens and performed extensively with the affiliated MOMENTA Performing Arts Company. She went on to receive her BFA from The Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy.

Professionally she has worked with Buglisi/Foreman Dance, Thang Dao Dance Company, Subtle Changes, Riedel Dance Theatre and enjoyed five years of international touring with the Limon Dance Company. Ms. Monroe-Cook continues to teach Limon technique and stage repertoire for various companies and schools nationwide as well as presenting her own choreographic work. She also received her Pilates Certification from the Kane School of Core Integration in New York City and is an active Pilates instructor.

Christine Juarez

Christine is currently the Coordinator of Summer Dance for Cornish College of the Arts where she has taught ballet, pointe, creative movement and pre-ballet for the past 19 years. She also choreographs for Cornish’s pre-college apprentice company and is a fixture in children’s choreography and opera in the Seattle area. She is Director of Dance for Vashon Allied Arts and has been the Artistic Director of Blue Heron Dance Company, which she founded, for the past 13 years.

Christine splits her time running dance programming between Vashon Island and Capitol Hill. She has been teaching for over 30 years. She studied ballet with John White, Margarita De Saa in Philadelphia and Jean Pierre Bonnefoux and Jacques Cesbron at Indiana University where she earned a B.S. in Ballet and Music and a M.S in Modern Dance and Physical Sciences under the direction of Bill Evans. Christine is a master artist in residence for the state of Washington and works collaboratively with classroom teachers bringing movement to the academic curriculum. She performed extensively throughout the Midwest and East Coast and is one of the Pacific Northwest’s premier children’s choreographers.

Her love of experimental theatre has taken her to study, perform and/or choreograph in Vienna, Berlin and Amsterdam, and she has been awarded several choreographic residencies and commissions throughout Seattle, Idaho, Utah and Florida. Jessica has choreographed over 20 works for dance-theatre, musicals, film and theater. With long-time collaborator, Luke Allen, she is Co-Artistic Director of CorpusCorpus Movement Association, a multi-media performance art company, funded by city, state and corporate sponsors. Having a great interest in merging dance with film, she has created several dance cinemas; her most recent cinema collaboration with Luke Allen premiered in Uplink’s Next Moment in Tokyo. She holds a Master’s in Intra-Personal Psychology from her twenties, and a Ph.D on the insatiable desire of humanity. She also studies yoga, integral philosophies of nature and heart resonance. She is currently working on a new dance cinema, “Join; All the Promises I Made You,” with filmmaker & musician Luke Allen, who is co-founder of their performance collective CorpusCorpus Movement Association. They are on retreat (constantly).

Maria Gitana

Maria Gitana has been teaching and performing Flamenco-Spanish dance for 30 years. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree and is a Maestra de Baile with the Spanish Dance Society. She has received grants in Washington, from the Shoreline/LFP Arts Council and the Bellevue Schools Foundation for residencies, workshops and after school programs the through Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation.

She teaches in conjunction with ASUW Experimental College and Seattle Central Community College at her Flamenco Gitana studio in Seattle. Her studio hosts the only Spanish Dance Society certifications ever conducted in the Western states. Previously, Maestra Gitana was an Urban Gateways artist in Chicago, where she is recognized as a Master of Ethnic Art by the Illinois Art Council. As a teaching artist, Sra. Gitana formed the arts in education performance company, FLAMENCO GITANA. The company has been endorsed in the King County Touring Arts Roster since 2005.

Pat Hon

Pat performed extensively for 10 years with ballet companies in France, Austria, Spain, and Germany. In 1983 she received the National Endowment for the Arts’ Choreographic Fellowship and since then has choreographed for the Atlanta Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Summer Inventions, Singapore Ballet, Ballet Concerto of Miami, Goh Ballet in Canada, Federal Ballet Company of Malaysia, Ballet Petit, and for dancers competing in the International Ballet Competitions in Jackson, Mississippi.

Before coming to Cornish in 1978, she taught at the Morelli Studios in New York and in Florence, Italy. Pat began studying ballet at the age of 10 in her native Singapore and continued her studies at Rosella Hightower’s Centre de Danse Classique in France. She also studied Flamenco and Classical Spanish dance in Madrid, Spain, and performed with the foremost Spanish dance company, Antonio and his Ballets of Madrid, before coming to New York to attend the Joffrey School and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. She has been teaching for 34 years as Professor in the Dance department at Cornish College of the Arts. Between June and December 2008, Pat was Head of Dance at the School of the Arts, Singapore, where she continues to teach in the summer.

Paula Peters

Ms. Peters received her early training in ballet, modern, jazz and tap (Royal Academy of Dancing method) at British Dance Academy in Renton, WA, under the direction of Sandra Baca. In October of 1991, she joined Spectrum Dance Theater (Seattle, WA) as an apprentice and immediately moved on to become a full company member. In addition to performing with Spectrum, she served as the rehearsal director from 1998 to 2005, retiring from the organization in 2005.

With SDT Ms. Peters performed lead roles in works by numerous choreographers, including Ann Reinking, Margo Sappington, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Claire Bataille, Danny Buracezki, Daniel Ezralow, Trey McIntyre, Donald Byrd, Wade Madsen and Dale A. Merrill, touring throughout the US, Europe and Mexico. In addition to working with Spectrum she performed in local industrials and independent artist productions. She has taught as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Washington, the Montana Dance Arts Association, and is currently on faculty at Dance Fremont, Cornish College of the Arts and Cornish Preparatory. In addition to teaching, Ms. Peters choreographed the Junior Broadway Production of Once on This Island for Villa Academy, has created several works for Dance Fremont’s Contemporary Dance Company, Fremont DanceWorks, and served as rehearsal assistant to Wade Madsen for Cornish College’s 2008 production of The Pajama Game. Ms. Peters received a BFA in Dance through the Professional Dancers Program at Cornish College of the Arts in 2007.

Steve Casteel

Steve Casteel was born in Tacoma, WA and received his early training from Jan Collum School of Classical Ballet. At age sixteen Steve joined Boston Ballet II. In 1987, Steve became a member of Houston Ballet where he was promoted to soloist and performed many of the great classical works such as Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Coppélia, and Cinderella. With Houston Ballet, he performed works by such renowned choreographers as Christopher Bruce, Jirí Kylián, Sir Kenneth McMillan, Ben Stevenson, and Paul Taylor.

In addition, he has performed with Diablo Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Next Stage Dance Theatre, and Spectrum Dance Theatre. Locally, Steve has danced in works by Kay Englert, Dominique Gabella, Amii LeGendre, Wade Madsen, Dale Merrill, Crispin Spaeth and Deborah Wolf. From 1997 to 1999 he worked for Washington Contemporary Ballet in Tacoma as Assistant to the Director. In 2001, Steve received his Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle WA. In 2004, he received his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona in Tucson AZ. From 2004 to 2006 Steve was the Public Relations Coordinator for Next Stage Dance Theatre. Steve has taught at Bainbridge Dance Center (Bainbridge Island), Berkeley Ballet Theater (Berkeley CA), Cornish Preparatory Dance Program (Seattle), Dance Fremont (Seattle), Spectrum Dance Theater (Seattle), and The University of Washington (Seattle).

Alia Swersky

Alia Swersky is a movement artist, performer and teacher, engaged deeply in the vital act of dance improvisation. She graduated from Cornish College of the Arts in 1998 with a BFA in dance and now teaches at Cornish as an adjunct faculty member since 2005. Committed to training and engaging youth populations as well as college students, she founded The University Preparatory High School dance program, teaching a variety of dance styles, curating a series of guest teaching artists, and choreographing work for middle and high school students. Committed equally to the local professional dance community, Swersky has taught at Velocity’s Strictly Seattle Festival and the Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation (SFDI). She has been a long time Co-artistic director of Dance Art Group (DAG), a non-profit organization that promotes the practice and appreciation of dance and somatic education in the Seattle area. DAG produces the annual Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation and other events that support innovative research and education in dance/movement. Swersky has taught yoga continuously for over 10 years at a number of studios, and invites this influence into her dance work and teaching. Other influences include contact improvisation, release/somatic techniques, Aikido, Buddhist meditation, and many pivotal dance partners and teachers. Since 1998, she has danced and toured nationally and internationally as a member of the LeGendre Performance Group. Swersky continues to work in artistic collaboration with Amii LeGendre, teaching and in creating work together. Swersky has collaborated and performed in the works of many Seattle artists including The Maureen Whiting Company, Khambatta Dance Company, Jurg Koch, KT Niehoff of Lingo Dance, and is currently working with Salt Horse. Alia’s improvisational and choreographic works have been presented in many intimate venues around Seattle, as well as 12 Minutes Max, Choreofest, SFDI, as part of Crispin Spaeth’s MIXER2, Velocity’s NEXT Festival NW, Cornish College of the Arts’ BFA shows, and the Northwest New Works Festival.

Pam Algenani

Pam Alegnani is a Pilates-Evolved Instructor since 1999. Her certifications include Polestar, Balanced Body and Pilates and Beyond. She enjoys working with all levels of students. Pam has taught Pilates at Cornish College of the Arts for the Summer Dance Program training young dance students since 2009. Her philosophy of lifetime fitness as our bodies’ age and change helps students to adapt exercises to their range of motion, to re-pattern old habits and to learn to move through their limitations. The focus of her work helps students develop core strength, gain structural integrity, and increase their balance and coordination. She teaches with a sense of humor and compassion encouraging her students to be aware of how their body moves. She is influenced by numerous international yoga and Pilates teachers and believes patience and progress takes time. For more info on Pam see http://www.PilateswithPamSeattle.com.